Concord Takes on Mercyhurst, Salem in Non-Conference Tune-Up

Concord Stats - Mercyhurst Stats - Salem Stats - Live Stats - Live Video

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team makes its first weekend road trip of the season when it visits Salem for two games along with a neutral site matchup with Mercyhurst. All games will be played at Frank Loria Field in Nutter Fort, West Virginia.

SCHEDULE
12:00 p.m. Thursday – Concord vs. Mercyhurst

3:00 p.m. Thursday – Concord at Salem

3:00 p.m. Friday – Concord at Salem

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Salem Sports Information Department will have live in-game statistics of the games involving SU.
Video: Video will be available for the Salem games.

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions have won four of their last five games and are 6-3-1 this season.

Mercyhurst is nationally ranked 23rd by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA) and has a record of 5-1.

Salem is 3-10 this season.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST
CU scored 44 runs in a three-game sweep of Kutztown over the weekend. The 21 runs that Concord plated in the middle game of the series were the most since the Maroon and Gray put up 25 runs in an April 2019 win at Ohio Valley. And the 44 runs were the most for Concord since scoring 47 in the final three games of a four-game series against West Virginia Wesleyan in 2017. Sophomore catcher/infielder Chris Satcher paced the offense by hitting .692 with a slugging percentage of 1.154 and 10 RBI as he was named the Mountain East Conference Player of the Week and the NCBWA Regional Hitter of the Week. Satcher is ninth in Division II in batting average (.531). Sophomore infielder Michael Dupont tallied his second five-RBI game of the season as he finished with four hits and six RBI in the series finale versus Kutztown. Freshman catcher Joey Duffer was also stellar at the bottom of the CU lineup with five hits in 11 at-bats and five RBI over the weekend. As a team, Concord's .379 batting average is second in Division II.

SIT EM DOWN
Sophomore pitcher Andrew Neff struck out 10 Kutztown hitters on Saturday in his first win of the season. In his previous start, Neff fanned a single-game program record 13 Bluefield State batters. The Fredericksburg, Virginia native became the first Concord pitcher to strike out 10 or more batters in back-to-back starts. Backing up Neff's start, fellow sophomore pitcher Eddie Blake recorded a career-best eight strikeouts over six innings and allowed just six hits and two runs. Freshman pitcher/infielder Rylee Nicholas came out of the bullpen in Sunday's win and tossed 5.1 innings, only allowing one run and retiring 17 of the 19 batters he faced. Nicholas was selected as the MEC Pitcher of the Week after his relief outing.

RECORD SETTING DAYS
The Mountain Lions lost two of three games to Salem last season. However, in Concord's 16-10 win over the Tigers last season, CU hit a nine-inning, single-game program record five home runs. Senior infielder Evan Antonellis, junior outfielder Richard Ortiz and sophomore infielder Zack Saryeldin all homered once while fifth-year senior infielder Anthony Stehlin was a triple shy of the cycle, but hit two home runs in the contest. Stehlin drove in four runs while Ortiz had three hits and six RBI. Thursday will be the first meeting between Concord and Merychurst since the CU pitching staff had a single-game program mark of 19 strikeouts in February 2020. Current Concord pitching coach Trent Abernathy was responsible for 11 strikeouts in 6.1 innings. The Lakers defeated the Maroon and Gray, 5-4, in 11 innings.

MERCYHURST AT A GLANCE
Mercyhurst has scored at least nine runs in five of six games this season. The lone loss for the Lakers was a 4-2 setback against Glenville State. Mercyhurst is batting .294 as a team, but is averaging just under 12 runs per game. Aidan Shepherd has launched four home runs and has 10 RBI this season. On the mound, Jarrett Heilman has 16 strikeouts in 9.2 innings and an ERA of 1.86.

SALEM AT A GLANCE
The Tigers' most recent game was a 13-3 loss to Mercyhurst. Nathan Kuhn sports a .344 batting average and a has a team-best 11 RBI this season. Salem has defeated MEC schools Alderson Broaddus and Fairmont State. Jaryd Lund has collected 35 strikeouts in 24 innings and has an ERA of 4.50.